Radio frequency (rf) cavities for the deflection or crabbing of particle beams have been developed for many years. Most of these devices are comprised of superconducting cavities operating in the transverse magnetic (TM110) mode although some are room temperature structures operating in the λ/4 mode or are of the H-type. Crabbing rf structures have been of interest for the increase of luminosity in colliders and more recently for the generation of sub-picosecond X-ray pulses.
While all of these structural solutions have proven satisfactory and reliable, they have a number of major shortcomings. These include: 1) they are unsuited to low frequency applications; 2) they have large transverse dimensions; and 3) because of their requirement that they be located in the beam line they are not compact, but occupy significant beam line space.
Thus, there remains a need for a compact particle beam deflection/crabbing structure that is useful in low frequency applications and minimizes transverse dimensions.